Dale Heck's (dalebheck) Blog

Owning A Home - More SpaceBoth indoors and outdoors, you will probably have more space if you own your own home. Even moving to a condominium from an apartment, you are likely to find you have much more room available - your own laundry and storage area, and bigger rooms. Apartment complexes are ...

No Major Purchase of Any Kind Review the article title "Don't Buy a Car," and apply it to any major purchase that would create debt of any kind. This includes furniture, appliances, electronic equipment, jewelry, vacations, expensive weddings......and automobiles, of course. Call Dale or Cathy fo...

Interest RatesAnother reason for including financing information in your offer is to protect yourself. If interest rates suddenly become volatile and rise quickly, as sometimes happens, you may looking at a mortgage payment much higher than you anticipated. By putting a maximum acceptable interes...

Property Insurance  Market Value vs. Replacement CostWhen deciding how much insurance you need to cover your home, think replacement cost rather than market value.Most people tend to think about the market value, which is the selling price of your home. This value goes up or down based on the eco...

Inspections You Should Require Besides appraisal and the termite inspection, you should also have a professional go through the house and seek out potential problems. Of course, you will have inspected the home, but you are not used to looking at some things that a professional will find. Even if...

Closing Costs and Financing IncentivesThere may be times when, as part of your offer, you request the seller to pay all or a portion of your closing costs, or provide some other financial incentive. One common request is asking the seller to provide funds to temporarily buy down your interest rat...

Stable Monthly Housing CostsWhen you rent a place to live, you can certainly expect your rent to increase each year - or even more often. If you get a fixed rate mortgage when you buy a home, you have the same monthly payment amount for thirty years. Even if you get an adjustable rate mortgage, y...

Home Inspections  Time for InspectionsOnce you have a contract, you need to get inspections done in a timely matter. It's recommended to have a termite, property and roof inspection at a minimum. Condition, location, type, personal knowledge and other factors should dictate to you what other insp...

How Home Improvements Affect Your Offer PriceEven when comparing exact model matches within a tract of homes, you should note whether the previous owners have made any substantial improvements. Cosmetic changes should be largely ignored, but major improvements should be taken into account. Most i...

Owning A Home - Freedom & IndividualismWhen you rent, you are normally limited on what you can do to improve your home. You have to get permission to make certain types of improvements. Nor does it make sense to spend thousand of dollars painting, putting in carpet, tile or window coverings when ...